Posts Tagged ‘sound’

This piece caught me mostly due to light and sound. It’s short and sweet, but does a great job of showcasing how a surface of LED can be illuminated when touched by water. What I noticed about this piece right off the bat was the sound. There seems to be an example of the “stereo effect” going on that’s especially noticeable at the beginning, with the sounds bouncing between the left and the right speaker. The music is electronic and interesting, just as the subject matter, so it seems fitting.

Shooting in the dark always seems daunting to me, but since the focus of this piece is the process of using paintbrushes or water atomizers to create light paintings on the LED walls, it’s a good choice to showcase the light. In shots like that of the children and patrons “painting” the wall, it casts light on their faces allowing us to see the people while still enjoying the bright lights of the light graffiti. Other times, people serve simply as silhouettes against the designs. Shooting this piece in the dark helps make the beautiful light creations the centerpiece of the production, as they should be. Perhaps shooting in the dark isn’t so scary after all!

Since we will soon be having a discussion about sound and how we as storytellers can use it in dramatic ways, I thought that this documentary short was really interesting. This guy uses sound in ways that most of us haven’t even thought of! Cheesy enough, it’s true. This video is also just very beautifully captured, so that adds to the awe-inspiring way that this character is enthralled with sound. What works for me in this piece is the combination between sound design and the amount of matched-action sequences in this video.

The scene where Justin goes to collect audio at the train tracks is one scene that really stood out for me, due to the combination of attention-getting tracking shot as he walks up to the tracks, action shot of him putting the recording strip on the tracks, and then the reaction shot of his face and hands with the recording device. To me, it really worked to bring me into the action of this guy actually going out and recording such a large amount of audio to archive. I also really like the scene of Justin inside (with beautiful lighting) where he is going through old recordings. The scene begins with a dolly shot moving across the bucket of tapes as he chooses one to listen to. The sequences goes into another great sequence of matched action editing while Justin puts in a recording he made of his grandfather and then cuts to a cinematic camera movement of a “sweeping across the floor” to the character as he listens intently to this recording of his grandfather. To me, that is a powerful moment that was captured and expressed.